Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The Hurley School Board discusses bids for a school expansion Wednesday. Among those participating in the discussion include, from left, board member Rick Swartz, board president Joe Simonich, interim superintendent Kevin Genisot, Superintendent Chris Patritto, board members Darryl Mattson and Maria Sokol.
By Bryan Hellios
Hurley - The Hurley School Board met Wednesday morning to open and review sealed bids from Angelo Luppino Inc. and Nasi Construction LLC for an expansion project to the Northwoods Manufacturing facilities in the Hurley school.
Angelo Luppino's bid of $1,212,149 came in 13,071 lower than Nasi Construction's. After a short discussion by the board Angelo Luppino Inc. was awarded the contract by unanimous decision.
School board president Joe Simonich said both bids were "right within the ballpark" and he is happy to be able to see this project move forward.
"We really needed more space for the program," Simonich said. "The area we have now is just not big enough and it is a safety issue."
The Northwood Manufacturing program is a collaboration between the school and local businesses to teach students the technical skills of working with wood and metals. Jacob Hostettler, machine and welding shop teacher, said the expansion of the shop will allow them to be able to offer additional programs to better serve the students and the community.
"We are going to grow. I'm excited," said Hosteler "We are going to start doing bigger projects and we are definitively going to start a construction program immediately."
Tracie Williams, director of OHM Advisors, said the next steps in the project will be to do a post bid interview with the low bidder and then issue a notice of intent so they can receive the construction schedule.
"Construction can then begin as soon as the ground is thawed enough and is willing to let us dig in it," Williams said.
